Last weekend I was happy to find that I could actually watch one of my Cleveland Indians games on television. Having moved down to Marietta, Ohio, this is the first baseball season of my life, apart from the strike year, where I have not been able to catch my poor putrid baseball team on the boob tube. Of course, it’s only pleasurable until you realize the Indians are going to lose once again, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, while watching the game (we were playing the Tampa Bay Rays), the announcers started talking about the newest trend in baseball, which is the consistent and perpetual shift of infielders based on statistical analysis of where batters hit the ball. Even last year this strategy on the part of most baseball teams was used sparingly.

Occasionally the third baseman might shift a little toward short if a left-handed pull hitter was at bat, but generally, the defenders stayed where they are. Now it seems like some baseball teams are engaging the shift not only for every hitter but even for every situational pitch.

What was particularly interesting about all of this is how much the announcers, who have been around baseball for years, lamented this new trend. They did everything but call it a stupid thing to do. They noted that if this keeps up, baseball teams may need to hire a defensive coordinator. Maybe baseball will turn into a different version of football. It made me think that this is probably how a lot of conversations are going in boardrooms around the world. Companies need to make the shift, but people who have been in the industry for awhile think the desired shift is overkill at best and not feasible at the worst.

Situational Shifting

Truth be told, companies need to emulate baseball teams that shift after nearly every pitch. Think about the now talked-to-death incident of the Oreo ad that went live when the Super Bowl went dark a couple of years ago. That ad represented not just a shift as in a reaction to live events but also a shift in how business is done.

There was no time to contact legal, to go through the traditional brainstorming process, or anything else that companies would traditionally do before sending out a marketing message. The ad was created and BOOM! The ad was live.

Some shifts are small like the Oreo real-time ad but other shifts are taking place over a longer period of time. Books like Humanize by Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant exemplify how companies need to be shifting everything about their culture and how they work. This would be akin to a baseball team deciding it is going to employ the shift strategy over the long term.

Shifts Are Based on Research

Baseball managers don’t have their defensive players move around on a whim. In all cases, there are pages and pages of statistics for every batter. The players, managers and coaches know where that player tends to hit the ball, how that player tends to hit in certain counts and more. All of the shifts are based on that specific information.

It has to work the same way for companies. Before deciding that you are a social business, your company needs to make sure you understand exactly what that shift means.Before trying a new tactic, which represents a shift of sorts, it is a good idea to do research to see what is involved in implementing that work, whether your customers would find your content in that environment interesting, and more.

Before your company makes a shift, it is wise to see what your competitors are doing. Is there a trend for shifting in the industry like there is a trend for shifting in baseball today?

Don’t mock the boat (it’s probably carrying you forward)

For industry purists, any kind of shift away from “the way we’ve always done it” can be hard to absorb. You might find, upon recommending a shift to your boss, that you are greeted with chagrin, frustration or even sarcasm. “Sure, that’s a great idea…if you can make it happen.” You can probably still hear the echoes of companies saying, “Yeah, sure, we’ll get on Twitter. We want to talk about what we had for lunch” (I still hear this, by the way).

Naysayers are best proven wrong by seeing results. Announcers may laugh at the shift, but when a hitter hits a ball that goes directly to the shifted shortstop, the laughing stops, or at least is paused. The same will happen for your company. Be ready to present solid evidence as to why your company needs to make that shift now. Show how other companies have found success doing the same thing if that’s not too risky of an approach.

In baseball, as shifts continue the hitters will eventually adapt. The same is true in business. Even if you succeed in executing the shift in your business, the day will come when the competition catches up and you will have to shift again. There is no question that making a shift can be scary and uncertain, but they can also be a key to success. Is the gamble worth it for your company?